How come the United States per capita income is 44,000 but most people I know don't make that much?

Question

I looked it up online and everywhere it says $44,000 but i have my doubts. Most people I know don't even make $25,000 so how is $44,000 our per capita income?!

Answer 1

because the majority of wealth in the usa is distributed among the rich elite, so the average balances to that number with all the poor people in the mix. if youve got 9 ppl who make 10 k per year and one who makes 1 000 000 per year, your average will be something like 100 k per person, even tho 9 of 10 dont make near that much

Answer 2

Per capita income gives no indication of the distribution of that income within the country, so a small wealthy class can increase the measured per-capita income far above that of the majority of the population.

Example. Say 99% people make 30K a year and the other 1% makes 100 times that, or 3 Million a year. That doesn't sound unusual to you, does it? Now, do the math. The per-captia income using this example is $59,700. See how just a few can skew the number?

Answer 3

The per capita income is not per worker it is per person, and only a little over 1/3 of the population works, because many are children, students and retired. If it were per worker the number would be closer to $100,000. The median wage is about $37,000 but there are people with incomes up to 1.5 billion dollars a year who raise the average.To see income distribution for households see
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2006/11/05/2005-us-income-distribution/
Keep in mind that many households have 2 earners and that there is a lot of variation with location. see
http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2007/08/07/united-states-household-income-map/

Answer 4

Well, not to be insulting, but I'm guessing you and most of the people you know did not graduate from college. Either that, or you graduated with liberal arts degrees.

The per capita income is the average income. Let's say you have 10 people. 9 of them make $20,000 a year, and 1 of them makes a million dollars a year. Their average or "per capita" income is $108,000. It's a good measure of national wealth, but a poor measure of individual wealth.

Answer 5

A small percentage of people make MILLIONS per year. Together, though, they make so much that, averaged, it makes us all seem richer.
I think you might live in an area that may have a lower-than-average income. For instance, I used to live on an island where 1/2 of the residents were either doctors or lawyers. I'm sure the garbage men were bringing in at least 30 thou!

Answer 6

That numebr is wrong.

Per captia income in the richest states, such as Maryland and Connecticut is more like 25-27K.

Overall in the US I would guess something like 21-22K.

Look up Per Capita Income in wikipedia.org, probably you will find links to authoritative figures.

If that is stil no in the range of people you know, look around at the people you know and see if they or you could be doing better somehow :)

Answer 7

Maybe the statistics you ought to look in to is the average salary of workers in the USA. Per capita income inludes those not working.

Answer 8

it's the average of everyone working in the u.s. i'm sure some neighborhoods are the opposite and most people there make 100,000 per year + i'm sure if you find the average income for just your city it will be lower than the U.S. average

Answer 9

probably that is the "joint" income..of a hubby/wife..which the average..and usually ppl ilike to work over fourty hours...and those indiudals can make 44 thousand on their own..plus many in us are well educated iwth high class jobs..that are making a average of 40-65thousand a year..such as: the meidcal feild, (nursing, or docs who are making around 100 thousands, lpns, physical thearpist, occupational therapist etc)..lawyers..engineers..at other jobs..

Answer 10

Because a hand full of people make a disgustingly obscene amount of money to make the "average" income.